title: [Mucoepidermoid tracheobronchial tumors. Apropos of a series of 11 cases].
abstract: Mucoepidermoid tumours (TME) are rare tumours which develop at the level of the submucous bronchial glands of the tracheobronchial tree. The majority of these tumours develop in a benign fashion but some of them are malign. Amongst these many are probably confused with adenosquamous bronchial cancers. We have reviewed eleven patients suffering from TME who were observed over a period of twelve years. Two of these tumours were at the level of the trachea: nine others were at the level of the bronchial cartilaginous trachea. Seven of these tumours had the macroscopic and histological criteria of low grade malignancy and four corresponded to those tumours said to show high grade malignancy. The only death concerned a patient with a tracheal tumor of high grade malignancy but the death occurred immediately after laser therapy to relieve obstruction in a patient with acute asphyxia. None of the other patients died of tumour progression and the longest follow up (eleven years of survival) involved a patient with a bronchial form and a high grade malignancy with glandular invasion. Even mucoepidermoid tumours of high grade malignancy have a good prognosis and it is a cardinal point to clearly distinguish these forms from adenosquamous cancers. Nevertheless it has been suggested that adenosquamous and mucoepidermoid carcinomas could have a common origin and be the extremes of the same overall disorder just as the image we have of neuroendocrine tumours whose spectrum extends from carcinoid tumours to small cell cancers.
authors.affiliation: Service de Chirurgie Thoracique, Hôpital Laennec, Paris.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Riquet
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brière
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Paris
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Barthes le Pimpec
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Puyo
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Manac'h
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001980:Bronchi / Q000473:pathology; D001984:Bronchial Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018298:Mucoepidermoid Tumor / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery; D013997:Time Factors; D014132:Trachea / Q000473:pathology; D014134:Tracheal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery
vernacular_title: Tumeurs muco-épidermoïdes trachéobronchiques. A propos d'une série de 11 cas.